The Ancient of Days
by Seth Destrucdos de Mardio
Summary: This is the story of my OC character, Seth Destrucdos de Mardio. This story is based in the Skulduggery Pleasant world with no actual characters from the series being involved. A few events mentioned in the series might make an appearance, nothing more.


Chapter One

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><p><em>3 January, 1422<em>

Seth slowly opened her eyes before rolling onto her right side to face the wall that contained the only door to her bedroom. Seth sighed when she noticed it was closed. This meant that she had woken before Patrizia, her handmaiden, had arrived, again. Seth did not like waking before Patrizia had arrived because there was never anything to do this early in the morning.

So Seth did the same thing she did every morning when she woke before Patrizia arrived. Seth threw back her blankets before getting to her feet. There was no point in pretending to be asleep. She walked over to the only window in her bedroom before opening it.

This particular window over looked the grapevines on the east side of The Flameheart Villa. It was beautiful sight to see on these early mornings. But that was not what she was looking at. At the bottom of the hill on the other side of the grapevines was a small residential building that was part of The Flameheart Estate, but it was also a place Seth was forbidden to visit, The Flaming House.

It was called such because of the flames that can often be seen flying up towards the sky from the courtyard. Seth had always wanted to find out what caused these flames but her father had forbidden her to go anywhere near The Flaming House.

So Seth sat by her bedroom window dreaming of walking down that hill, to The Flaming House, and seeing the truth. Although Seth had never been down to The Flaming House that did not mean she did not know who lived there. Seth knew through a close friend that several boys aged from thirteen to eighteen lived in The Flaming House. Her close friend would not tell her why but he did say that they were being tutored by her father.

Seth still did not understand what her father could teach them. As far as Seth knew he was just another man, he was just her father. There was nothing special about Michelangelo Flameheart. But then again there were strange things in their family. Although Seth's parents were married her mother carried a different surname, Florentine di Pietro, even Seth had a strange surname, Mardio. Seth always felt like there was something she was forgetting about her name but she could never remember.

The boy that told her about her father's activities at The Flaming House was a boy of the name of Octavian. He never spoke of a surname. Octavian was only a year older than Seth but they had gotten along great after Seth found him doing chores around The Flameheart Villa. But that was the norm. According to Octavian all the boys staying in The Flaming House helped around the estate so that they could stay in The Flaming House and received Michelangelo's teachings.

Seth remembered the day she meant Octavian for the time.

_It was a Sunday. Seth's tutor did not teach on Sunday's so that day Seth found herself sitting in her mother's garden relaxing. She sat there in silence until she heard cursing coming from another part of the garden._

_This was her mother's garden and no one apart from family was allowed to be in this garden so this other person was interesting. Everyone knew they were not allowed to be here but yet someone was here. Seth stood and walked around the garden looking for the owner of the cursing until she found Octavian._

_He was crouched over with his hands in the rose's bushes. It was clear that he was removing the weeds from the garden and he was having trouble avoiding the thorns of the roses._

"_Is there not better way of doing this," Octavian asked himself._

"_I hear avoiding the thorns is a good way," Seth replied._

_Octavian suddenly turned to face her. Upon looking at her he sighed. Seth guessed that it was because of clothes. On Sunday's she did not wear a dress or anything girly. She actually wore something more masculine including pants. It was easier to get up to trouble with pants._

"_I thought you were someone important," he said._

"_What makes you think that I am not important," Seth asked._

"_Well, I have not seen you before and you do not look important."_

"_So you are the sort of person that judges others on their appearance."_

_He shrugged as he stood up._

"_Give me your name and maybe I will not judge solely on appearance," he said._

_Seth quickly thought about it. If she told him her name this fun would end because she was not allowed to others, especially if she did not know them._

"_Giving you my name would be too easy," she replied._

"_True, am I to wait until you wish to give me your name or am I to guess," he asked._

"_Whichever you like," Seth replied as she looked down at the roses. "Would you like help?" Seth asked._

_He turned back to the roses to see what she was asking about._

"_I do not think chores are the sort of job for a girl," he said._

"_Are you saying that I am not strong enough to handle a few scratches," Seth asked._

"_Not at all, just a girl doing my chores would make me look weak," he replied._

"_I only offered to help, not to do your chores for you," Seth corrected. "Plus the quicker you get these down the quicker you can start guessing my name," Seth added._

_He smiled at that and allowed Seth to help with the de-weeding of her mother's garden._

"Miss de Mardio," Patrizia said from Seth's bedroom door bringing Seth back to the present.

Seth turned to face Patrizia. She was a short woman that carried more weight than anyone else Seth had met on The Flameheart Estate. Patrizia was caring woman. She cared for Seth and when Seth did not care. On Sunday's Seth would get up to things, that end up with her carrying some sort of injury back to the villa. Patrizia was the person that she always came to for help. Seth feared her mother on those days.

Seth's mother had been raised like a girl or woman should be so she looked down on the clothes Seth wore on Sundays and what she did. But Seth was a ten year old girl that needed to get out. After spending all week indoors with her tutor she enjoyed running around outside on Sundays.

But today was Thursday. Seth would see no fun today. Seth sighed at that thought. She could not bear to see another day of lessons. Seth knew all her tutor could teach her. Granted had handwriting was not as good as it could be but as long as she could write Seth did not think it was important. The only reason why Seth continued to attend her lessons is because they were the only thing her mother could control in her life. So Seth decided she would give them a go, for her mother, but now Seth was bored.

Seth may be only nine years old but she was wise beyond her years, her father's money helped with that. Seth had many tutors over the years. From ones that taught writing and reading to ones that taught her about art, money and business. Seth hated those classes the most. Business and money were so complicated and Seth wanted nothing to do with them but she had been born the daughter of Michelangelo Flameheart. She had expectations.

Seth would inherit everything her father had when her father died if without marrying someone first. Since Seth was Michelangelo's only children he decided that he did not care for the rules about who inherited his things after he died. He decided to go against these rules and give everything to his daughter after he died, to Seth. So Seth needed to learn how to run a wine business and how to handle money correctly.

Even though Seth wanted to make both her parents happy she had had enough. Today would be different. Today she would attend no lessons and only have fun. The first step towards this fun would be to get out of The Flameheart Villa undetected. But that was hard enough on a Sunday let alone a day Seth was meant to stay inside.

After her morning bath Patrizia helped Seth into a beautiful but practical dress for the day ahead of her. Seth would not be staying in this dress all day and if she was she would not be wearing it inside. She was going to go outside not matter what anyone said. Her father was never around during these days, he was always down at The Flaming House 'teaching'. Her mother had decided a lot of recent to visit her parents and Seth's grandparents a lot more. This had caused problems.

Geovanni and Carmela di Pietro had not liked their daughter's choice in husband. Even though Seth did not know all the details she could tell it went deeper than that. Her parents loved each other but of recent that love had become distant. They were hardly ever in the same room and Seth believed her maternal grandparents were behind it.

Seth had never asked about her father's side of the family, her paternal grandparents. She knew very little about her father's family. All she knew was that that her father had changed his surname, the reason why she did not know. Although she knew nothing about his family she had an interesting conversation with him once about someone dear to him. Seth guessed a younger sibling but never asked because the pain in her father's voice was enough to tell her something terrible had happened to them.

Seth's entire family seemed to be full of lies. Her father hid his family from her. Her mother hid the reason behind her name from her. Her father hid the truth of The Flaming House from her. Her mother hid the reason why she married her father from her. They both hid so many things from her and she had enough.

Tomorrow she would have words with her father because of what she was about to do today and tomorrow she would be asking for answers. Every question she had she would ask. She would no longer be afraid of hurting her parents. She wanted answers.

Although Seth's father hid a lot about his family from her she knew one thing he did not hid. Michelangelo Flameheart had a younger sister going by the name of Pietra Rock. Whether or not Rock was Seth's father original surname was unknown to Seth. But when it came to her auntie her surname was not something cared about.

Born a few years before her Sway Dark entered the word. Much like Seth's parents and herself Sway carried a different surname to her mother and father, Calvino Shadows. But yet again the surname differences did not matter when it came to her cousin, Sway. Seth loved Sway like a sister and even though over the past few years Seth had not seen or heard from Sway she still admired and loved her.

At this point in her life Sway seemed to the only way that had not lied to her. But Seth hardly really knew Sway and the more she realised this, the more her love towards her cousin changed so she avoided thinking about why Sway had not visited or even written a letter in such a long time.

After getting dressed Seth headed to the dining room where she had breakfast alone. Meals were always like this. Her father was at The Flaming House 'teaching' and her mother was either somewhere else in The Flameheart Villa or was at Geovanni and Carmelo di Pietro's house.

Seth never mentally referred to her grandparents as her grandparents because they hated her like they hated her father. Seth did not know why and did not care to know. She just could not call them family if they hated her.

After breakfast Seth returned to her room where she was meant to collect her things for her lesson before heading to her lesson's room. But today was different. Once alone in her bedroom Seth tore the dress off and slipped into something more comfortable and something with pants. Seth had grown to like pants.

Once in something practical for fun Seth opened her bedroom window and climbed outside. The Flameheart Villa only had level, the ground level. So climbing out of her room was easy. There was hardly a drop from her window to the ground. Once on the ground Seth thought about closing the window but decided against it. They would find out either way what she had done.

Seth quickly looked around and thought about where to go. She wanted to go to The Flaming House like she had always dreamed of doing but her father was there right now and she would rather avoid a confrontation with him.

So Seth decided to go to the only place she knew no one would find her, well Octavian would find her because it was there spot. During the summer months her father seemed to spend more time down at The Flaming House and Octavian seemed to spend less time around The Flameheart Villa so they found this place and decided that was where they would met during the summer months.

The place she was thinking about was the river. On the north, east and south sides of The Flameheart Villa were grapevines while on the west was a small river that supplied water for the farmlands surrounding the villa that made up the rest of The Flameheart Estate.

The river was surrounded by a mess of trees and shrubs so it was impossible for anyone to follow her in there and not get lost. But to get to the river was another problem. Her father employed a small guard to guard The Flameheart Villa and Estate. Seth did not know what their purpose was but she knew they did not like to let her outside on the days she had lessons.

So the only way to sneak past them was to hide amongst the grapevines on the north side of the villa, since the south side was split by the road that led to the villa. Seth entered the grapevines on the east side of the villa before climbing her way between them and around them to reach the north side.

Once on the north side she slowly and carefully made her way towards the river. She stopped her one of the guards faced north and continued when they looked away. By the time she reached the tree line that surrounded the river the guards had been informed she had snuck out. But she had already reached the river before they could do anything.


End file.
